A parked railroad car uses a hand brake to hold it in position. Manipulating the hand brake generally requires a brakeman to climb onto a car, turn the brake wheel multiple turns, maybe as many as twenty, and descend from the car. It is not uncommon for a brakeman to have to set or release forty or fifty hand brakes at a time. Thus, a brakeman may find it necessary to make over one thousand turns of brake wheels for one parking. Many injuries to brakemen result from mounting and dismounting the cars.
Several devices have been introduced to allow the brakeman to manipulate the brake controls from the ground, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,481,950, U.S. Pat. No. 6,182,539 B1, and US 2010/0109357. However these devices interact solely with the spokes of a brake wheel and do not provide a good means for rapidly turning the wheel the many times necessary to set the brake.
Therefore there has been a need for an improved tool for releasing and setting railroad car hand brakes that provides for rapid turning of the wheel and firm setting of the brake.
It is further desirable that the tool include elements for firmly manipulating the brake release lever.